The James Bruce Round Barn is one of 31 round barns found in a four county area that includes Winnebago County, Stephenson County in Illinois, and Rock and Green Counties in Wisconsin. Twenty one of those barns are within Stephenson County.[2] The Bruce Round Barn was constructed in 1914 for James Bruce by Jeremiah Shaffer and the Haas Brothers.[3]
Design
The barn was designed by the team of Jeremiah Shaffer and the Haas Brothers, Shaffer's five brothers-in-law. The Shaffer–Haas team built 12 of 13 round barns in the Stephenson–Winnebago County area that have had their carpentry positively attributed.[2]
The diameter of the James Bruce Round Barn is 58 feet 8inches (about 17.7 m). Its exterior is clad in wooden siding, known as "drop siding," and it stands on a poured concrete foundation. The single hip roof is supported by a series of braces and topped with a cupola. The stave silo has a diameter of 12 feet (3.7 m) and is accessed on the barn's northeast side via a banked entrance. Animals entered the barn at grade level on the south side of the building. Above the south and northeast entrances are overshoots which extend from the wall diagonally and were meant to compensate for the building's lack of overall storm protection.[3]
The Bruce Round Barn features a single hip roof and a wooden central silo.
In the days before mechanization, round barns were seen as being useful because of their labor-saving features: the livestock could be fed in one pass around the barn, using the hay stored in the loft above the stock and the grain in the central silo. Cleaning out the manure likewise could be done in one circuit, with fewer wasted steps. The coming of machinery, especially with the Rural Electrification program, obviated labor-saving designs that were more complicated to build, and round barns faded into history.
Significance
The Bruce Round Barn is the last known round barn constructed by the team of Shaffer and the Haas Brothers.[3] The design of the Bruce Barn is important in the evolution of general round barn design. The single hip roof construction, complete with a series of internal rafter braces for extra support are the result of the inability of some carpenters to complete the self-supporting roofs that round barns typically utilized.[3] The Haas Brothers and Shaffer came up with two novel solutions to this problem.[2] The first was to construct a conical roof, the second, which is exemplified in the Bruce Round Barn, was to construct a single hip roof.[5] The University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station heavily influenced the roof style.[2]
The James Bruce Round Barn was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1984.[1] The Bruce Round Barn was part of the original National Register submission that accompanied the development of inclusion criteria for Illinois round barns.[2] These types of specific inclusion criteria are known as multiple property submissions, and they outline basic criteria for National Register inclusion for properties of a certain type and attempt to put them into a historical context.[6] Each property submitted under the auspices of a multiple property submission is listed on the National Register of Historic Places individually.[6]
1 2 3 4 5 Sculle, Keith A. "Round Barns in Illinois Thematic Resources," (PDF) National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 9 January 1984, National Register Information System, National Park Service. Retrieved 14 September 2007.
1 2 3 4 5 Sculle, Keith A. "James Bruce Round Barn," National Register of Historic Places Individual Property Form: Multiple Property Submission, October 1983, HAARGIS Database, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved 14 September 2007.
The Lewis Round Barn is located in Mendon, Illinois, in northwestern Adams County. It is one of 14 round barns recognized by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The barn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 29, 2003.
Buckeye Bridge also known as White's Ferry Bridge was one of nine metal highway bridges in Fulton County, Illinois once listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Buckeye is one of the five bridges that have been demolished out of nine similar bridges in the county. This particular one was over the Spoon River near Smithfield, Illinois. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 29, 1980, along with the eight other bridges, as one of the "Metal Highway Bridges of Fulton County". The bridge was one of three near Smithfield listed on the Register, the others are the Bernadotte Bridge and the Tartar's Ferry Bridge. Others, such as the Babylon Bend Bridge in Ellisville, are located throughout the county. Another Smithfield area bridge, Elrod Bridge, was nominated with the original Multiple Property Submission but removed from the Register after its 1995 destruction by an F-4 tornado.
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Round Barns in Illinois Thematic Resources is the title of a Multiple Property Submission to the National Register of Historic Places in the U.S. state of Illinois. The submission consists of 18 Illinois round barns located throughout the state. The list had major additions in 1982 and 1984. In 1983, 1992 and 2003 one property was added to the submission and in 1994 a historic district at the University of Illinois, including three round barns, was added to the submission and the National Register of Historic Places. The highest concentration of round barns on the submission occurs in Stephenson County. Five Stephenson County round barns were added to the National Register on February 23, 1984.
The University of Illinois Experimental Dairy Farm Historic District, also known as South Farm, is a designated historic district in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is located on the campus of the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. The district consists of eight contributing structures and several non-contributing structures. The district was designated in 1994 when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Multiple Property Submission concerning Round Barns in Illinois. Three of the district's buildings are early 20th century round barns constructed between 1908 and 1912. The district covers a total area of 6 acres (2 ha).
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The Raymond Schulz Round Barn or Raymond Schultz Round Barn is a round barn in the U.S. state of Illinois. The barn was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on August 26, 1982 as part of the original Multiple Property Submission, Round Barns in Illinois Thematic Resources.
The Virginia Tillery Round Barn is a round barn located on County Route 738 west of White Hall in Greene County, Illinois. The barn was built in the fall of 1912 for farmer Harry C. Price. With a 36 feet 6 inches (11.13 m) diameter, the barn is relatively small for an Illinois round barn; the median diameter of Illinois round barns was 60 feet (18 m). Its size suggests that it served as a general-purpose barn, not a dairy barn like the state's larger round barns. Brown tile blocks were used to build the barn, which is topped by a wood shingle roof with a cupola.
The Clarence Kleinkopf Round Barn is a round barn in McDonough County, Illinois, United States. Carpenter Dick Carmack built the barn in 1915 for farmer George Welch. The wooden barn has a diameter of 56 feet (17 m) and a shingled hip roof. The barn's entrances are on the west, south, and northwest sides. A haymow encircles three-quarters of the barn at the roof's base, and a ventilator sits at the roof's peak.
Ron George Round Barn is a round barn northeast of the U.S. village of Romeoville, Illinois. It was originally constructed for Frank Eaton c. 1912–13 in Bolingbrook, Illinois.
The three University of Illinois round barns played a special role in the promotion and popularity of the American round barn. They are located in Urbana Township, on the border of the U.S. city of Urbana, Illinois and on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. The University of Illinois was home to one of the Agricultural Experiment Stations, located at U.S. universities, which were at the heart of the promotion of the round barn. At least one round barn in Illinois was built specifically after its owner viewed the barns at the university. Though originally an experiment the three barns helped to lead the way for round barn construction throughout the Midwest, particularly in Illinois. The barns were listed as contributing properties to the U of I Experimental Dairy Farm Historic District, which was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
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The Charles Fehr Round Barn is a round barn in the U.S. state of Illinois near the Stephenson County village of Orangeville. The barn was built in 1912 by the team of Jeremiah Shaffer and the Haas Brothers about one half mile from the Illinois–Wisconsin state border. The building is the first round barn in the Stephenson County area, home to 31 round barns, with a hip roof. The building was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Central House is an 1860s hotel building located in the 800-person village of Orangeville, in Stephenson County, Illinois, United States. The building was built by Orangeville founder John Bower and operated as a hotel from its construction until the 1930s, when it was converted for use as a single family residence. The three-story building was the first commercial brick structure in downtown Orangeville. Architecturally, the building is cast in a mid-19th-century Italianate style. Central House was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
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